The 5 Key Steps to Building a Successful Author Branding and Marketing Campaign!
Every author I know has struggled, at one point or another, with how to effectively market their books. So, as an author coach for over a decade, I decided a few years ago to learn all I could about what works and what doesn’t when it comes to book marketing strategies. And while it would take much more time than I have writing this article to run through all the critical elements of a marketing campaign that actually works (you can read more about that here), I decided to approach it from an angle that tackles the most crucial error most...
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Ideas To Help You Create Paperback Book Spines
In the past few posts, we’ve talked about creating back covers that lead to sales, a deeper dive on writing blurbs, using segments of those blurbs in advertising memes and now for some do’s and don’t for creating the spine of your paper or hard back book. Note: see this post on creating paperback covers which explains a lot about what the various lines on your template means, why you need to pay attention to them. Right off the bat, the biggest issue I see with spines is the fold line. Yes, the paperback printers are careful about this, but...
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Using Book Blurb Lines In Your Ad Images
In the good old days, readers bought books in bookstores. They traveled to the store and unless they were shopping for a specific title, readers then wandered the aisles in general or headed straight for the section with their favorite genre. After browsing, they made a decision to buy based on three things: an enticing cover, an intriguing back cover description, and a captivating first page. Today’s online shopping experience relies on those same elements: traffic to get to the virtual store, an eye-catching cover image, a reader-hooking...
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Deeper Dive On Creating Book Blurbs
Do you dread writing your book blurb? I used to, but now it’s actually fun! We all know that getting a reader to our selling page is step one. Book Brush can help you create social media memes that rock and will drive customers to this all important page. The next step is to engage them enough to keep reading the blurb we’ve meticulously crafted and then finally to click that buy button. I have 6 ways to help you with that. In Teresa Conner’s blog she mentions how to create a back cover and touched on blurbs. I’m going deeper on crafting...
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How To Design A Back Cover That Leads To More Sales
The back cover is something not many authors really think about when getting their book designed. With the plethora of clients I’ve worked with, only about 98% have even mentioned the back cover design to me. It’s often something they don’t even consider until after I’ve sent them the first draft. But the back cover can be something really special when shown a little love. In this post, I’ll discuss both design tips and writing tips to help you nail a back cover readers can’t resist. Design Tips Contrast matters. As stated in a previous blog...
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What Do You Want To Promote About Your Book Series?
Writing a series is a great way to continue characters your readers love, settings they can’t get enough of, and conflicts that keep them turning the pages while wondering how it might be resolved in a future book. (I don’t mean cliff hangers, but a character who will have her or his own book to solve an issue brought up in a prior book.) In Sandy Appleyard’s post, she talks about ways to create a series and shows some of her ads. In those she’s promoting her free book in the series. But I don’t have a free book, you say. I don’t...
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How To Prepare For A Book Series
Some authors write a book and the characters are so lovable (to both the readers and to the author), that it turns into a series. Others write-to market and find that the best way to have a more promising income stream is to write a series rather than standalones. Whatever the way that you stumble upon the potential of writing a series, here are some basic steps that will help you outline your plan to publish a series. Decide if it will be a standalone or a cliff hanger series As a series writer, I’ve written both types, and I’ve learned that...
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3 Simple And Effective Book Ads Using Animation
I’ve said it many times, images often create more interest than words, and when you add motion, meaning animation, you exponentially increase your viewer’s interest. I’m going to show you 3 simple animations using Book Brush’s animation tools in their Custom Creator. Tip: The animation tools in Book Brush are simple to use, just remember to add the animation Hide when you don’t want your object to show. Example #1 I decided to make a Face Book sized ad, so picked that ad size to set up my workspace. Of course, my first fun task is to find the...
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7 REASONS I USE ZERO DRAFTS (AND HOW YOU CAN TOO)
If you have been in the writing community for any amount of time, you’ve probably heard a term circling around: zero drafting. You’ve probably visited multiple websites, watched YouTube videos, and listened to podcasts, deciding you want to try it for yourself. But! What exactly is a zero draft? How do you use them? Is there a specific or “right” way to write one? All good questions and as I love to do, I’m going to explain what I interpret as a zero draft and why I use them. Disclaimer: I don’t ALWAYS use zero drafts. This is mostly due to...
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11 Examples Of Customizing Book Ad Templates
Today’s blog is not only showing you examples of templates, but how to make the changes inside the templates to customize it using Book Brush Tools. Through the past few months, I’ve shown you many ways to think outside the box as you to look at templates by using the book’s title, the cover imagery and colors. For those blogs I used what we call at Book Brush, our Instant Mockups. But are you aware there is another way to find templates to use that can give you faster results and more control depending one what you’re trying to accomplish?...
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